swag rport.

Rappers have always readily found uses for the millions of dollars that their musical career has provided them. Trips to Jacob the Jeweler, foreign cars, mansions, extravagant trips, and Versace linens are just a view examples of the material purchases that have become synonymous with rap music. Sign a deal and drive straight to the dealership.

This fascination with consumption and name brands has led to countless sponsorship deals for rappers to plug products in songs or public appearances. One such example is a deal that 50 Cent, a health fanatic and lover of Vitamin Water, inked to promote the drink. The terms of the deal gave him $5 million and a 5% ownership stake in the fledgling company. Thanks primarily to his sponsorship, the sales of the product exploded and the parent company, Glaceau, sold to the Coca-Cola Company for $4.1 billion in cash. This transaction netted 50 somewhere around $100 million after taxes, way more than he would ever make off of record sales. With that, the game done changed.

50 made it happen, but by no means did he invent this model. The venture capital community has been generating massive returns by trading capital for a percentage ownership in upstart companies for decades now. Sometimes that company turns into the next Facebook, and more money is made than 50 Cent has ever dreamed of, but most of the time the company fails...fails spectacularly. In this case the investment becomes worthless. That’s how it goes - one homerun pays for all of the other bad bets.

If you’re following then maybe you already see where we're going with this. Why doesn’t every rapper take his or her money and invest in startups and turn those millions into billions? Short answer: they try. Promising startups receive plenty of investment offers these days. It's actually really hard to get into the right deal. If a rapper wants to compete with famed, established investors such as Mark Cuban, Ben Horowitz, or Peter Thiel, he will have to demonstrate that he can actually help grow the company. For instance, 50's endorsement of Vitamin Water helped to spike the Company's sales from $100M to $700M in 2 years.

Now there is a new name that has joined the ranks of the aforementioned legends of the VC community. Term sheets for the most attractive tech firms have now started including investments from QueensBridge Venture Partners (QBVP) whose letterhead includes a Managing Partner by the name of Nasir ‘Nas’ Jones. And to say that they’ve been doing well would be quite the understatement. QBVP has co-invested with the likes of AndreessenHorowitz, 500 Start-Ups, SVAngel, CrunchFund, FirstRound, and many of the other tier 1 investment shops in companies such as Lyft, Dropbox, General Assembly, Tilt, RobinHood, and SeatGeek, just to name a few. In total they’ve made 54 investments in 52 companies that you couldn’t take an ownership stake in even if your last name happened to be Gates.

That’s only the tip of the iceberg. Nas is also listed as a General Partner of 4 other VC investment portfolios focusing on the e-commerce and media industries as well as the co-founder of a subscription service known as 12Society which was acquired by Quarterly in July of 2013 for an undisclosed amount. He also sits on the advisory board for 6 startups including Genius (formerly rapgenius) which received $40M in a Series B funding round led by AndreessenHorowitz.

So Jay, who's the business, man?

“On the sand at your Malibu house holdin’ a cordless
Talkin’ to lawyers accountants investments
Money doubles, triples protected hard work you manifested”

— Nas, Nothing Lasts Forever

Nas didn't just throw money at 52 companies. Nas and his partners forged relationships with these 52 companies that they can help grow and turn into successful ventures. Many investors liken VC investments to a marriage; these relationships will withstand the life of the company. As much as Nas and his partners believe in these companies, these companies believe that Nas is the right investor to help bring their company...their baby...to success. Placing that bet on the artist from Queensbridge who has demonstrated his own ability to develop a brand...the artist that dropped an album that after 20 years is still one of the best in the rap game...the man who has co-founded and successfully grown his own companies...that's a pretty good bet, in my opinion.

I remember the first time I heard Nas’ verse on 'N.Y State of Mind.' I listened with the utmost attention to each syllable he spit on Illmatic in total awe of the genius that was changing what I knew about hip-hop. Today there is no questioning that genius of Nas. His influence has shaped the game as we know it today. When he claimed that "hip-hop is dead" every rapper in the game had something to say about it. When a rapper makes a song claiming that he “let Nas down” that is synonymous with an alienation of what it is to be hip-hop itself. But Nas, who was recently awarded a Harvard Fellowship to show that "education is real power," hasn’t just changed music. He has helped shape black history in America and helped call attention to much of the injustice in inner-city communities in this country.

Now, Nas is creating the blueprint for how to transfer short-term music success into sustainable wealth for the notoriously spendthrift hip-hop community. Just another in a long list of milestones for Mr. Nasir Jones. Rap may never know another artist to have the influence that Nas has had. We will all be lucky if another does come along. But I wouldn’t hold your breath.

And to think, in ‘87 KRS-One dropped the track claiming that "The Bridge is Over"... The Bridge ain't over!